Juho Toivola: A great recruiter understands the strategy of the company

We met Juho Toivola recently at the amazing HR Unconference in Berlin. He leads Finnair’s recruitment team. His openness to HR innovations instantly got our attention. We are glad to profile him as our next Inspiring Recruiter.

What do you think defines a great recruiter? Do you think the “recruiting profession” requires a certain type of personality?

A great recruiter understands the strategy of the company he/she is recruiting for, and bases recruitment activities on this understanding. Strategy is implemented through people, and you need the right mix of competences, leadership and workplace behaviour to reach that.

Personality-wise, if the job includes interviewing, extroversion and agreeableness can make the job less stressful. But, other than that, I don’t think there’s a certain kind of personality type that would be more suitable than any other.

What do you like most about recruiting?

I really like the conceptual work around trying to understand and clarify the essence of each job role. But I also really enjoy finding relevant candidates for hard-to-fill positions.

During the process, recruiters often have to deal with frustration – no feedback from Hiring Managers, rejections, bureaucracy. Do you have a recipe how to deal with that?

It really helps if you have a good team spirit and great manager you can talk to. Ventilating feelings with others takes out unnecessary frustration and helps you to concentrate in the getting actual job done.

There is so much new technology in HR industry – everything can be analysed and give you new information about candidates. How do you recognise the right balance between having too much information and having not enough information to make a decision?

“Right amount of information is when you are able to clearly make a distinction between the working style, cultural fit and growth potential of each applicant.”

At least when comparing candidates, right amount of information is when you are able to clearly make a distinction between the working style, cultural fit and growth potential of each applicant, and make hiring decisions based on that.

Juho, you as an HR Manager are quite autonomous – unlike many recruiters we know, you have a company credit card and can test any online tool you want. Can you pls share some tips with our readers how to get such a freedom from procurement in such a big corporation?

When it comes to talking with procurement, it’s better to talk about service fees as “recruitment costs”, not as “IT platforms”

It is true: we have freedom to use different SaaS platforms and pay for the expenses on our credit cards. I think it’s a matter of getting the trust of company management and making them confident that you know what you’re doing. When it comes to talking with procurement, it’s better to talk about service fees as “recruitment costs”, not as “IT platforms”. That also helps.